Ai — The Puzzle Journal

Life is full of puzzles. Some you can see, some you can't. Some you can hold, some you can't. Some are fun, some are not. This is where we write about them — and, now and then, print one on a shirt.

Outsmarting AI, Part 5: What AI Cannot See

October 18, 2026 · Ai · Outsmart Ai · Visual Puzzles · Pattern

Part five: the weakest spot in machine reasoning isn't language or math. It's looking at a picture and understanding what's in it.

Outsmarting AI, Part 4: Simple Questions AI Gets Wrong

October 10, 2026 · Ai · Outsmart Ai · Brain Teasers · Trick Questions

Part four: some questions are hard because they are complicated. Others are hard because they look complicated and aren't.

Outsmarting AI, Part 3: River Crossings and the Wall of Complexity

October 3, 2026 · Ai · Outsmart Ai · Logic · River Crossing

Part three: AI can ferry three travelers across a river without trouble. Add three more and it falls apart. What the collapse does and doesn't prove.

Outsmarting AI, Part 2: Knights, Knaves, and the Trap of Familiarity

September 29, 2026 · Ai · Outsmart Ai · Logic · Knights And Knaves

Part two: on an island where everyone either always lies or always tells the truth, the biggest danger for an AI is having seen the puzzle before.

Outsmarting AI, Part 1: A Six-Part Puzzle Series

September 19, 2026 · Ai · Outsmart Ai · Brain Teasers · Logic

Machines can pass the bar exam and still lose to a riddle a child can solve. A new series about the puzzles that trip up artificial intelligence — and what that tells us about our own thinking.